Hurricane Irma

[ArthurDent]

I'm in N. Florida. Irma is headed my way. I'll post photos as long as I can. Eventually I expect I'll lose my internet connection, but until then, I'll post periodically. This morning, I got a shot on my ipad of Interstate 75, one of the main north-south routes. Traffic was heavy and moving very slowly, mostly headed North. It's been like this for several days. Just looking at the sky, one would have no clue a giant storm is fast approaching. I wonder if the billboards shown in the photo will still be standing after the storm comes through?

[ArthurDent]

Gasoline availability has become a big problem. The ports in the southern part of the state have all closed, so gasoline can no longer be brought in from the gulf coast refineries. In the northern part of the state, we are still getting truck deliveries, but many stations have closed because they are out of fuel. Those that are open all have long lines. I was able to fill up early in the week, topped off my tank a couple of days ago, and found a station that was open this evening to top off again. They were limiting purchases to $20 per person, which bought me 7.1 gallons, much better than nothing, but I could have used a bit more. I waited in line about a half hour to get it.

[pluton]

Are you near Ocala, Florida?  Stay safe, and maybe re-process the JPEGs so they show right side up on the forum.  When downloaded and opened on the computer desktop, they are correctly oriented.

[Bill Mellen]

I'm in N. Florida. Irma is headed my way. I'll post photos as long as I can. Eventually I expect I'll lose my internet connection, but until then, I'll post periodically. This morning, I got a shot on my ipad of Interstate 75, one of the main north-south routes. Traffic was heavy and moving very slowly, mostly headed North. It's been like this for several days. Just looking at the sky, one would have no clue a giant storm is fast approaching. I wonder if the billboards shown in the photo will still be standing after the storm comes through?

Stay safe Arthur, my thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the storm.

[Fons Baerken]

Does the wind come from the right all images are rotated on their side..

[Frank Fremerey]

Stay safe. Have your  towel ready all the time!

Stay safe Arthur, my thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the storm.

Esp I think of Armando in Mexico, who has storm Katja and Earthquake in his neighbourhood, well, not immediate, Guadalajara México seems to be 1000 km away from the center of the quake

[ArthurDent]

Does the wind come from the right all images are rotated on their side..

When I posted them last night, they were correctly oriented and displayed correctly. Not sure how that happened.

[MFloyd]

I confirm, this morning, these were correctly oriented...

[ArthurDent]

Are you near Ocala, Florida?  Stay safe, and maybe re-process the JPEGs so they show right side up on the forum.  When downloaded and opened on the computer desktop, they are correctly oriented.

I'm in Ocala. I don't know how to fix the orientation, they displayed correctly last night when I posted them. Maybe one of the moderators can fix them, it appears to be a site problem, not anything I did. BTW, they still display correctly on my ipad, but not on my computer. Last night they displayed correctly on both.

[Jakov Minić]

I have rotated the images.
Take care Arthur Dent!

[Akira]

Arthur, it's nice to see your post.  But the utmost priority is to stay safe!

[ArthurDent]

Thank you Jakov! Here is a shot from my ipad of our hurricane supplies. Barring a sudden change in the track, we don't think we will have much impact from the storm other than power/internet outages. There will probably be enough downed trees and power lines so we won't be able to drive around for a couple of days. So, this morning, I'm going to go buy enough dry ice to keep everything frozen/cold for a couple of days. I'll store it in coolers until necessary to use. We had to buy enough prepackaged/canned/prepared food and water to last a few days because we don't expect to be able to get out until a couple of days after the storm passes. It's expensive to get ready. My wife spent over $200 on food items we usually would not buy or eat but we have to have them because of the potential loss of power for an indeterminate period of time. (This is quite odd, the image is oriented correctly when displayed in the thread on my ipad, but is rotated when displayed on my computer. Sorry about that.)

[ArthurDent]

Arthur, it's nice to see your post.  But the utmost priority is to stay safe!

Thank you for your expression of concern, much appreciated.  Earlier I was very worried. The predicted track passed just a couple of miles from my office and I was quite concerned I'd have no office left after the storm passed. I decided to put the backup copy of my books in the safe deposit box at my bank. When I went by to drop it off, my bank had already closed for the storm. There was no e-mail warning me that would happen. So, the memory stick now resides on my dresser top for the duration. Thankfully, the predicted track has shifted west and so my office is probably out of danger, although there could still be a problem as hurricanes often contain embedded tornadoes. The downside of that shift is that the storm now is predicted to go very near my oldest daughter's house near Crystal River. We are going to try and talk them into sheltering with us until the storm passes. I doubt they will do it, her husband is  very  concerned with protecting his property from looters.

[ArthurDent]

Stay safe Arthur, my thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the storm.

Thank you, we can use all the prayers we can get.

[ArthurDent]

You can track the projected path and the hurricane's progress here:

http://www.mynews13.com//weather/hurricane-center.html